SGR

A while back, I started a journal about albums I felt were underappreciated. I've been wanting to go back to it, but haven't felt the spark yet to actually feel like writing enough to make it anything besides work. So, in lieu of that, I decided I'll do one of the these - the classic "what am I listening to" journals. This will serve hopefully as an outlet to exercise the linguistic part of my brain and perhaps even motivate me to start other journals I'd find worthwhile (like discography reviews) or return to my old underappreciated album journal.

Anyways, I'll provide a Youtube link to a track - or maybe an album, and give a brief explanation for what I like about it. Or, maybe I'll feel lazy and just provide a link. It'll depend on my mood. Let's begin.

SGR

Leftfield is widely known for their then innovative sounds in breakbeat and progressive house music on full display in their 1995 album Leftism. Admittedly, I always liked Underworld more, but the album grew on me over time, as did their vastly underappreciated follow-up Rhythm & Stealth (which has one of the all time coolest album covers). Anyways, 7 years ago or so they released a third album finally - it was okay, few good tracks - fast forward to late last year and they quietly (to not much fanfare) released a fourth album, This Is What We Do.

It's good. That's about all. It isn't revolutionary or anything - in fact, it's more of the same really. Same old Leftfield sound that was established on their first two records - breakbeats, big beats, and hard, driving analogue synths with some clever and crafty vocal loops and vocal contributions thrown in to spice things up. Despite the lack of originality, I quite enjoyed the record. There's something comforting about an artist that doesn't really switch up their sound and releases one album every decade or so - it's sort of like seeing an old friend who you haven't talked to in a long time - and after the initial greetings are out of the way, it's like you've never spent any time apart. Comfort, yes, that's the word. It's not always what I want out of music, but when it is, and I'm in the mood, Leftfield is, and hopefully continues to be (i.e. I hope this isn't their final record) that friend. This is what they do indeed. And they're damn good at it.

SGR

I've been listening to some 70s funk and soul recently - and besides their unforgettable "Car Wash", I'd never really listened to anything else by Rose Royce. Oddly, their first album was the soundtrack to the comedy film Car Wash. So I figured, I'd check out their first album proper In Full Bloom. It's a pretty damn good record - but I think their ballads are better than their exercises in funk. Case in point, the first track on the record, "Wishing on a Star" - which is unfortunately, the best song on the entire damn record.

The piano stabs, the deliberate percussion, the woozy strings, and most importantly, the crescendoes near the end and the absolutely beautiful vocals from Rose Norwalt (Gwen Dickey) - just wonderful. I love it. Again, it sucks that it's clearly the best song on the record. Peep it if you haven't heard it.



ALSO:

Hearing this track was a bit of a mindblower to me - as some of you know, I'm a big fan of house music. John Summit released a house track a couple years ago ("Forgotten One") that samples "Wishing on a Star". I should've done some more exploration at the time, because I've naively assumed that the vocals weren't a sample, but an original piece created specifically for that song. How wrong I was - but anyways, it was a great sample choice:

SGR

Trip hop as a relatively mainstream item seemed to disappear as quickly as it appeared - and there were several artists who made only one or two albums. One such group was Mono, a UK duo. Their big hit was "Life in Mono" - which is a great track, but I've always kind of liked "Slimcea Girl" better. Those beautiful piano notes are infectious, the bass licks are groovy - and the choral chorus is just *mwah* chef's kiss!



"Only memories remain...

OF THE WAY SHE USED TO BE! THE WAY SHE USED TO BE!"

Very jazzy, relaxing stuff. The album as a whole is even more relaxing - it's front-loaded, but still an enjoyable listen. Sometimes, you don't leave a long legacy, but a small imprint - and sometimes, that's good enough.

Oh, one other note - the title of the track came from this old TV advert for bread:

Slim-slim-slimcea girl!

SGR

Horace Silver was one hell of a pianist. And of course, he released some great albums too. His most famous is probably his 1965 Blue Note hard bop classic, Song for my Father, an album dedicated in tribute his dad, who was featured on the album's cover.



The album has rightfully garnered a lot of praise over the years - and while I wouldn't dare to begin to try and explain in technical terms why I love it, given my lack of knowledge in how to actually play jazz music, I can say that any lover of jazz music should check this album out. It's the perfect record to put on during a sunny Sunday morning when you're relaxing and trying to recharge for the challenges that next week will bring.

The title track is probably the most well known out of the bunch, a great, great song. But the closing track, "Lonely Woman" is perhaps my favorite. It's one of those mood pieces. Sparse drums, muted bass, and a dominant piano performance. It's just beautiful - the way the notes ascend and descend is like a massage for your brain. If you're not relaxed after hearing this track, I think therapy sessions might be in order for you.

SGR

Oh yes, probably my favorite S.O.S. Band tune.



That phat rolling bassline, those gentle guitar plucks, driving drum machine claps, and Mary Davis's beautiful soulful vocals. This is a perfectly funky slow jam - addctive in its laid-back nature and perfect delivery.

"Rate my love....from one to ten....and I'm suuuuure you'd give it twelve...."

S.O.S. Band is massively underrated and underappreciated - and so are Mary Davis's vocals. Just great, great stuff. They regularly add a bit of brass to live performances of this song which always sounds great - it's kind of unfortunate that there wasn't a brass section on the original recording, even though I think it's perfect how it is. Here's a live performance that showcases the saxy rendition (there's no great sounding live recordings on Youtube, which is a bummer):



I'm still waiting on a great house remix of this track. Some artist must've sampled the vocals in a house tune, right?....missed opportunity if not.

SGR

UGK (consisting of Bun B and Pimp C) - the southern rap duo that is unfortunately perhaps best known in popular consciousness for either their feature on Jay-Z's "Big Pimpin" or their late era masterstroke that featured Andre 3K, "Int’l Players Anthem (I Choose You)":





Great tunes, both of them - but when I think of UGK, I'm not thinking of either of these songs.

I'm thinking of one of the all-time greatest rap tracks - I'm thinking of "One Day", the opening tune from their best album, Ridin' Dirty. This isn't just glorification of drug dealing and partying as is the case with a lot of southern rap - it deals deftly with the consequences of living these lifestyles - it's emotionally charged and poignant as hell. This track paints a picture of a never-ending cycle of drug-dealing, incarceration, death, and sadness. The whole song is elevated to the level of classic with Ronnie Spencer putting in an amazingly soulful performance for the chorus and the woozy guitar that accompanies everything.

Lyric examples:







Oh yeah, one more thing: I think at their best, they were a better rap duo than Outkast were. Don't believe me? Check out "Murder", the third track on Ridin' Dirty - Pimp C drops bombs on the track - and that's just the pre-game before Bun B goes absolutely nuclear:



So yeah - "One Day" is a masterpiece of a track - and Ridin' Dirty is a certified rap classic. If you haven't heard it, you're missing out.

SGR

When it comes to post-punk, one of the more underappreciated bands in my eyes was The Sound. Their excellent debut album, Jeopardy was released about a year and a half after Unknown Pleasures - and their equally great follow-up From the Lion's Mouth was released a year later. I love these two records. Both of them are close to my heart. They're both downright excellent exercises in dark, somewhat depressing, but yet ultimately triumphant post punk music. Politically charged ("Missiles") at times - while at other times just grasping for hope ("Sense of Purpose") - it's always a musical exorcism of something evil from within us. The Sound were the real deal, even if they weren't as experimental as some of their contemporaries (The Pop Group, Swell Maps, Public Image Ltd., etc.) - the quality of their music speaks for itself. For those that don't know, their lead singer commited suicide in a particularly disturbing way (threw himself under a train as onlookers watched in horror) - his music and his lyrics were genuine expressions of his feelings and his inner turmoil.

Their records never became poor or tiresome, but after their second record, they admittedly never released anything quite as excellent. Which isn't to say that they no longer made excellent songs - and to that end, one of their later tracks is what I'm listening to today - "Total Recall" from their fourth record Heads and Hearts.

Beginning with a deliberate thumping bassline that soon sprouts into an excellently melodic guitar riff - Borland sings about love lost and the inevitable passing of time - tried and true lyrical subject matter - but boy do they make it work:

It's all such a blur when time goes so quickly
Trying to hang on to the way that you'd like things to stay
You trace back the seconds recall the details
From someone will, to someone does
To someone did, you know I did
Oh there must be a hole in your memory
But I can see
I can see, a distant victory
A time when you will be with me

And when that soaring chorus hits, that's when the song wins you over. At least, it won me over. Despite not hailing from their best album, "Total Recall" is most certainly one of their greatest songs. Sometimes what pushes a song over the top is the delivery and the pacing, and that's the case here. A melodic and poppy post punk triumph:



RIP Adrian

SGR

Bicep - Apricots

Perhaps my favorite song from 2020, or at least my favorite single, was Bicep's beautiful and hypnotic trance, "Apricots". It's an ambient techno piece that just feels like a musical ritual. Incantations, powerful though they may be, are nothing without the powerful and ascending synth chords and drum breaks.

The vocal sample just repeats and repeats, no one knows what she's really saying (unless you happen to speak the language), but it doesn't matter what she's saying: it's about the feeling the listener gets while hearing her say it. There's on additional vocal sample that slowly gets introuced with a repetion of "Ay..Maka!" - just to further sell the idea of incantations.

The most incredible thing is how little it really does, and yet how powerful and intense it remains. And the feeling that the listener comes away with is probably different for everyone. Is this a cry for help? A reminiscence of times past? A call to arms? Or just an invocation of the spiritual heart of man? This very loose statement of intent and its variability is something that electronic music is finely suited for, but the genre rarely pulls it off quite as gracefully and effortlessly as it's done here - it has almost all of the ingredients in it that made Future Sound of London's "Papua New Guinea" a complete marvel to listen to.

The song will take you into its world with a warm embrace, if you're willing to let it.



If you're curious what the sampled vocals are from, here they are - obscure recordings to say the least - and the way they were used in the track once again highlights effective sampling/looping as a very unique talent in itself - the primary vocal sample from the track can be heard right at the start of this track:



The second vocal sample of the track can be heard here, about 37 seconds in:



And one last thing - I have to give credit to house DJ Sonny Fodera for putting me onto this track, as he opened one of his sets with it - a set that was performed during the Covid pandemic at the famous Printworks club in London (seeing the video with no crowds of people there is a bit jarring to say the least) - and what an opening track it is: